The invention relates to programmable cooking systems and methods of operating programmable cooking systems. The invention is particularly, although not exclusively, concerned with programmable cooking systems comprising one or more microwave or combination ovens.
In the catering industry there is increasingly a need to be able to deliver a given range of meals from a menu at maximum speed and efficiency. In order to achieve this, it is common to use pre-programmed cooking devices, such as microwave ovens, which are loaded with program data representing an optimised cooking sequence for each item on the menu.
For example, a combination oven (being an oven which can make use of a combination of microwave and conventional heating) may contain a cooking sequence for a given item on the menu which comprises three stages, namely a defrosting stage, a microwave cooking stage, and finally a browning stage using conventional heating.
It will be appreciated that the cooking sequences must be carefully tailored to the particular oven being used, and the item to be cooked must match certain criteria (relating to the size and positioning of the food etc.) which are specified in advance. In order to avoid the need for the chef to manually program each cooking sequence into each oven, ovens are known which allow the chef to select each cooking sequence at the push of a button, or by entering a number corresponding to that cooking sequence.
For example, an oven is made by Merrychef Ltd and sold under the name xe2x80x9cMealstreamxe2x80x9d which allows 10 different cooking sequences to be selected by simply pressing one of 10 different numbered buttons corresponding to the desired cooking sequence.
However, a problem can arise when it is required to change a menu for a different menu, as may happen on different days during the week, or at different times during the same day. In addition it may be necessary to update menus to reflect items added or deleted from a given menu.
In this regard it should be appreciated that the cooking sequences are usually determined at a different site (referred to herein as a data site) from the site at which the ovens are used (referred to herein as the cooking site), and there may be a number of cooking sites serviced by a single data site.
In order to address this problem, it is known to update the program data for an oven using a modem connection to the oven, which allows data to be delivered from the data site to the cooking site. It is also known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,841,125 to use separate ROM modules which can be inserted into the oven in order to update the program data. Such ROM modules could for example be despatched by post from the data site to the cooking site.
However, further problems can arise if the cooking site is relatively large and comprises an array of different cooking devices, such as microwave ovens, combination ovens, conventional ovens, steam combination ovens (using a combination of steam and conventional heating), and hobs. All of these cooking devices can be programmable, and all can be provided with program data representing a number of different cooking sequences corresponding to different items on a menu.
Modem solutions can be costly because it is necessary to supply each cooking device with a modem. Furthermore, because the data is sent from a remote site, the chef may lose some control over exactly which updates are made and exactly when these updates are made.
If ROM modules are used, the system can become complex to operate because it is necessary to supply a different module for each cooking device, and it is necessary for the chef to insert different modules into each cooking device each time it is required to change or update menus. As a result of this complexity errors can arise.
The invention seeks to overcome at least some of the disadvantages of the prior art.
According to the invention there is provided a programmable cooking system, and a method of operating such a system, as set out in the accompanying claims.
It will be appreciated that because a single data key can be used with a number of different programmable cooking devices, the complexity involved in operating the system is reduced. The system is thus easier for the chef to use, and the likelihood of mistakes being made during the operation of the system is reduced.